A Time to Heal
by Soran Marlovic
Summary: After witnessing inuyashas death by sesshoumarus hand, kagome loses herself and Hojo is the only one who stands by her. can she really every forget the whitehaired halfbreed she had secretly loved?
1. Trust Games

As Kagome held him Inuyasha smiled despite all of the blood that had spread onto Kagome's blouse as Sesshomaru left silently leaving the girl and his dying brother satisfyingly.  
  
"Be sure to call me for the funeral" Kagome shook her head in distress. Tears running down her face as she pulled an arrow onto hr bow and aimed a shaking hand at Sesshomaru. He shot forward and she dropped her bow as he crushed her wrist.  
  
"My connection with you has been severed with my half brothers death so don't give me a reason to kill you as well." She collapsed crying, and as Sesshomaru disappeared down the path, Inuyasha spoke softly.  
  
"Kagome? There's something I have to tell you." She turned back to him and shook her head.  
  
"Don't talk like that Inuyasha. You aren't going to die." he chuckled and shook his head.  
  
"Don't delude yourself Kagome. You just have to know. You have to know that despite what happened between Kikyou and I, I love you. Not because you are Kikyou's reincarnation but just know that -" his voice was cut out. Kagome rocked back and forth with her knees in her arms as she remembered the whimpered softly.  
  
"Inuyasha..." the padded door opened as Hojo cam in. Kagome's mother sighing softly as she walked away from the tiny window.  
  
"Hi Kagome. How are you doing today?" she looked at him with blank eyes a moment before looking back at the floor.  
  
"I brought you the chocolate you like. This little room is so gloomy so I brought some flowers too." Hojo sat down next to Kagome, placing the flowers in front of her with the chocolate. She picked it up and her eyes began to water.  
  
"Please don't cry Kagome. They say you are coming along in therapy, a few more months in here and you might be able to get out and back to school." She took a piece of chocolate and halfheartedly ate it slowly, her eyes and voice unresponsive. She took one too and put it in Hojo's hand. He smiled and ate it as well.  
  
"Kagome, you never cease to amaze me. I just wish you would talk to me again. I know you don't talk so much anymore but tit would be just as wonderful if you would give me just one word." He sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the white-padded room. "I just want to know what it was that made you so sad." His smile faded a little. "I wish you would trust me." 


	2. Realizations and Revalations

Nik: hey speakin' to Camille, yes. Inuyasha died in a fight with Sesshoumaru as I thought I made clear. And yes Kagome is in an insane asylum, driven insane by the loss of Inuyasha. Try to think critically while you read would you? I don't wright for people who don't like to think when they are doing something that involves the problem-solving side of the brain.  
  
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Kagome sat up abruptly from her cot in the room.. She had been plagued by this vision of Inuyasha dead, then of his soul living happily ever after in his afterlife with Kikyou. She curled up as she sat and cried softly into her hands.. Hojos flowers had withered without water and the chocolates sat half uneaten in the center of the room, next to the limp flowers. She stood up in the white nightgown she slept in and knelled down next to the near dead flowers.. Picking them up she breathed deeply into their petals.. For just a moment she felt like she was back in the feudal era where that smell was everywhere.. The sweet smell of completely clean nature, devoid of the many pollutions of the city. She reached for one of the chocolates, trying to forget her disturbing dream, and halted hesitatingly.. She could only faintly remember meeting Hojo.. him talking to her and her unresponsive as a vegetable in her deep thought.  
  
"Oh Hojo.." She mouthed the words but no sound formed from her thought.. Yet another thing that resulted from Inuyasha death other than her depression. She stopped speaking months ago. her mother even gave up on her ever speaking again, even though she knew what was wrong. Her entire family did. But they didn't tell anyone. and who would believe them? Oh yes, her daughter fell in love with a demon and he was killed and now she's gone into withdrawal. Yes that makes a lot of sense. She had pretty much given up on Kagome of ever recovering. Though it was true that Kagome seemed to be coming closer to a breakthrough in her therapy, she had begun to believe that Kagome would never recover. Kagome took up the wilted flowers and placed them at her bedside as she got back into her cot.. Her eyes only half open as her coarse voice uttered just two words as she slipped out of consciousness..  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
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Kagome stood up as her psychiatrist left the room, holding the door open for her as she was escorted silently back to her room. The shrink said she was doing better but she thought that if she were ever to get out of this place she would probably hate the color white forever. It was so disgusting.. white-washed walls, white beds, white clothes.. Everything was devoid of any other color.. She went back into her cell as the door was locked behind her and Kagome picked up Hojos flowers again, sitting on the cot and just staring into them. Hojo did know just what to do to cheer her up.. He had been doing everything he could to help her ever since he first brought a medicine for her fake illnesses while making excuses for missing school while spending time in the feudal era.. Oh god.. The feudal era.. What happened to Sango and Miroku? To Kaede and Shippo? Had they forgotten her? Accepted that she wouldn't be coming back? And what about the jewel shards? Inuyasha was gone but they were still supposed to be her responsibility.. Kagome was brought from her revelations by a knock on the glass. she looked up as Hojo walked into the room, smiling friendly. She wanted to just jump up and hug him.. To thank him for all that he had done.. But she couldn't seem to move.. Lost in her own thoughts as she was brought out of them she felt like an alien in her body, unable to make her muscles work.. But her jaw could.  
  
"Hojo.." A grin of hope erupted in Hojos face as she spoke, even if it was so faint one could hardly hear it.  
  
"Kagome! You spoke!" Kagome looked back down at the flowers as Hojo hurried next to her. he automatically reverted to his shy self as he had always been around Kagome. As if everything were completely back to normal again and they were just in school, him trying to weasel out another date with her..  
  
"Hojo.. I'm sorry." Hojo without thinking, stopped her abruptly.  
  
"We have to tell everyone! Its a breakthrough! You'll be able to come back to school, and see your friends and -" Kagome covered his mouth gently.  
  
"Don't - tell anyone. I'm not ready to go home yet. but ... Can you help me with something?" Kagome knew it was asking too much, but she had to go back to the feudal era, had to see what happened with her friends after she ran home and lost herself..  
  
"Anything kagome.." He pulled her hand off his mouth, turning to face her. "But what is it that you cant tell your family? Your mother has near given up..." Kagome sat back down on the cot.  
  
"this may sound strange, but I need you to help me get out of here and to the shrine at my house..." 


	3. We Aren't in Japan Anymore

"You're lucky your parents are so desperate to see you well again Kagome.. Most families who have gone through an ordeal like yours wouldn't so easily allow you to leave the asylumn.. I'm kind of worried about giving them the slip though, for all they know I kidnapped you." Kagome was wearing normal clothes that her family had braught for her from home when Hojo asked for her to let her get some fresh air for a while.

It was a white sweater with a little pop icon on the front and a skirt a little longer than her school uniforms one. She practically dragged him along as she led him to the shrine and thought furiously of what she could do, while simultaniously not thinking of what she was going to do with hojo when she went to the feudal age... Previously the only ones who could use the well were her and Inuyasha, but now that he was gone, who knows whether the well would work for even her.

"Don't worry about it Hojo." She stopped on the little steps of the shrine and faced Hojo, his confused face staring into her determined one. She took a breath and continued. "Now what I'm about to tell you may seem crazy but you're going to have to trust me. I'm going to try something I haven't done in a while, and I can't be alone right now, so I'm going to need you to come with me." Hojo smiled warmly.

"Of course Kagome." She slid open the door to the shrine and stepped down the steps to the well, tugging Hojo behind her and stared at the bottom of the well, finally letting go of Hojo's hand for the first time since they left the hospital. She shut her eyes for a moment and just breathed. Hojo watched her curiously and said uncertainly "Kagome?"

Kagome suddenly grabbed his arm and jumped down the well, Hojo just barely able to jump over with her to avoid getting dragged over the wooden rim of the well as he yelled in confusion and Kagome shut her eyes, praying that it would work...

The two landed as carefully as they could, Kagome much more nimble due to all the times she had done it before, and Kagome looked around, praying to see vines instead of wood-rot. She smiled serenly with a bright smile and Hojo looked around and realized that they were no longer in the same well that they jumped into. He stared wonderously at Kagome and was cut off when he realized that she was already climbing the vines. He quickly followed and spoke up to her.

"Hey Kagome, what exactly just happened? I'm pretty sure that the shrine we were just in is nowhere near as bright as it looks now..." Kagome held onto Hojos wrists and helped him out of the well as they reached the top and Hojo looked around at the obviously different place they had arrived in. "Kagome?" Kagome was smiling brightly, finally feeling at home. She still looked thin, and sleep deprived, but the beaming smile on her face made her look so much more healthy.

"Hojo, THIS is why I've always been out from school. I feel like I've returned home... Let me show you where we are."

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Nik: Cliffhanger! Yes! Tis I! The marvelous raccoon-girl Nik! (I've become a furry while I was gone ) I am going to update like a crazy mad person who must update to save her life! I figured that since my previous posts were so short, I could be a little shorter in this one as well, though I'm not sure how short this appears to be... Maybe I'm just being lazy... Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and tough if you don't like the HojoXKagome pairing thats budding itself. I love kouga with all my heart, but were inuyasha to die, we all know that kouga wouldn't be the first person to come to mind. Hojo is a sweet boy despite all the lack of fuzzy ears and boo to you if you dun like it :P This is my story and I'm running with it! 


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